Threaded and reversible standing-valve socket



Feb. 26, 1929.

S. B. SARGENT TBREADED AND REVERSIBLE STANDING VALVE SOCKET Filed Dec.10, 1925 a m3 k 2 v ATTOENEY.

Patented Feb. 26, 1929.

SUMNER B. SARGENT, OF LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA.

THREADED AND REVERSIBLE STANDINGVALVE SOCKET.

Application filed December Although my present invention is entitled asreferring to a standing valve seat, it should be understood that thisinvention relates also to fittings cooperating with said seat, and toorganizations in which said seat and said fittings are employed. i

The standing valve or foot valve as used in pumping oil wells, is thebottom valve on a string of tubing. It will be understood. that thisvalve does not bodily move up and down with pump plunger. Oil passesupward through the standing valve because said valve has a floatingmember, either ball or plumb bob, which rises off its seat when pressurebelow said floating member is in excess of pressure on top of saidfloating mem-' her, as when pump plunger, which is above said standingvalve, is on its upward stroke. The floating member, ball or plumb bob,returns downward to its seat in standing valve as plunger of pumpreaches end of up ward stroke and ceases its attempt to create suctionon standing valve. A standing valve floating member, which for brevity Ielect to call a ball, returns to its seat in standing valve, thustrapping all oil above it. The hollow pump plunger, with a very similarvalve placed optionally on top or bottom of plunger, and sometimes atboth top and bot tom of plunger, continues its downward course forcingthe trapped oil through the plunger valves.

The standing valve ball and seat have heretofore been enclosed in achamber. The top part thereof called the cage, limits and con-- trolsthe upward flight of the ball and its return to its seat. The lowerpart, to which the cage is attached, is called the standing valve body;and its upper end contains or retains the seat for the ball. The lowerend of this standing valve body, externally, is tafpered approximately 7and forms a wedged contact with an outer cylindrical body called thestanding valve shoe. This standing valve shoe for 2 pump has beenapproximately 5 to 9 long, internally, its lower end has the taperedseat into which the lower end of the standing valve body, taperedexternally, fits. Below'this tapered seat the standing valve shoe hashad sufficient length to take the threaded end of oil tubing.

Above this tapered seat a standing valve 10, 1925. Serial No. 74,636.

shoe of the old type must have sufficient length to contain the standingvalve body (ball and seat and cage with flight chamber for ball) andsu'flicient additional length to take the threaded end of a tubingnipple to connect the standing valve shoe with the bottom of a pumpbarrel. The standing valve complete has been inserted through largeupper end of standing valve shoe to rest in the tapered seat at thebottom of the shoe.

As the vertical column of oil supported by the standing valve in somecases approximates a mile in length or height and the downward thrust ofthe plunger adds a tremendous pressure against the taper fit between thestanding valve body and the standing valve shoe, said tapered flt shouldbe as near perfeet as possible or oil will leak past said tapered fltand lessen the eliiciency of the pump; but standing valve shoes havecustomarily been made in one piece 5 to 9 long, with the tapered lit atlower end, scat upward. In perfecting these, a mechanic must reach acutting tool through the large end of the shoe,wit-h the cutting edge ofthe tool a relatively long distance from its support and largely out ofsight, and thus fashion the tapered seat. Needless to say, many standingvalves leak.

In my invention, the tapered seat is a separate piece from the shoe andis removable. The tapered seat extends to the very top end of thisseparate piece. The cutting edge of any forming tool used in theperfecting of the same can be backed up closely by a toolsupport,-tending to lessen the chatter of the cutting edge; and thetapered surface is in plain sight of the operator during cutting andtesting for accuracy,whereas in theold form the tapered seat wasrelatively near the bottom .of a tube, diflicult to reach and formperfectly, diflicult to test to accuracy, and difficult. to reseat inthe oilfield when it becomes worn and leaks. WVhen the old style taperedseat has been repaired a few times, the metal has been cut away to suchan extent that the whole standing valve shoe must be thrown away.

In my invention, when the replaceable removable tapered seat has gonebeyond repair, it alone is thrown away and its retaining parts are asgood as new to enclose another replaceable tapered seat. In my inventionthe tapered seat may be of bronze, to obviate the destructive acidswhich, in some wells, pit and eat the seat so that it leaks.

My replaceable taper-ed seats may be made of, for example, a suitableacid-resisting steel, which has proven a success in resisting saiddestructive acidswhilc the seat container may be made of suitable butcheaper steel; or my replaceable seats may have inserted or castbabbitted cores, into which the lower ends of standing valve bodies maybe pounded or forced; or my replaceable tapered seats be made ofordinary steel and hardened and ground to a more perfect fit-than ispossible in the case of older standing valve shoes.

With my replaceable seats l 'may use twopart shoes. The outercylindrical surface of tapered seats is threaded. Approximately one halfits length screwed into the upper half or part of a sectional standingvalve shoe, and the other half, approximately, of its length is screwedinto the other half or part of the standing valve shoe. The upper andlower halves or parts of the shoe may j am together on the thread of thereplaceable taper seat, and make an oil tight joint of lock nut effect.

It being now a common practice to provide, for use in deep wells, meanswhereby a standing Valve may be inserted or withdrawn through a pumpbarrelin order to obviate the lifting of an entire tubing stringwhenever the standing valve ceases to operate satisfactorilyit is anobject of this invention to provide an improved seat or socket andimproved fittings, constituting the mentioned sectional shoe forassociation therewith; and preferred embodiments of my invention maycomprise not only a seat or socket and threaded fittings. but parts(which may be substantially identicalwith one another andinterchangeable in position of use) adapted respectively to connect apump barrel and a perforated tube or leg, or the like, therewith; andpreferred embodiments of my invention may comprise socket elements whichare adapted to, serve, in the indicated manner. as

interior couplings. and which are neverthe less symmetrical withreference to either a central vertical line or with reference to ahorizontal plane,each socket element being provided with a pair ofoppositely disposed conical faces. for alternative or sequential use;and the described parts may be adapted to cooperate with a removablestanding valve organization comprising means for the support of aso-called gas-anchor pipe, extending through said socket and to a levelbelow the lowermost apertures in a perforated tube or leg; and, whendependent, the said leg may be supported, directly or indirectly, by orthrough said socket element. The mentioned gas anchor may be used eitherto exclude gas or as an aid in holding the standing valve body in itsseat, or for both of these effects.

Other objects of my invention may be best appreciated from the followingdescription of an illustrative embodiment thereof, taken in connectionwith the appended claims and the accompanying drawings, in which Fig. 1is, for the most part, a median vertical section, parts being brokenaway.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged separate view, taken in the same plane as Fig. 1,but showing an alternative type of socket element, in which Babbittlinings, are employed.

Referring to the details of that specific embodiment of my inventionchosen for purposes of illustration, 11 may be a pump barrel. orcylinder of any usual or preferred type, with or without a speciallining, and 12 may be a perforated tube or leg secured therebelow bymeans comprising an externally threaded socket element 13, sections ofthe continuous external thread 14; thereon being shown as respectivelyengaged by interior threads upon interchangeable complementary couplingelements 15 and 16, which may be regarded as together constitutingtwo-part standing valve. shoe. The former of these parts or couplings isshown as pro.- vided with an interior thread 17, to receive acorresponding thread upon the lower end of the pump barrel 11, and thelatter is shown as provided with an inteior thread 18, engaged by acorrespondingly threaded portion of the perforated leg 12.

The socket element 13 is shown as provided with oppositely taperingconical faces 19 and 20, either of which, according to the manner inwhich said socket element is disposed, is suitable to receive acorresnondingly tapered hollow plug 21, suitable for the retention of astanding valve organization of any preferred character,as, for ex,-an-lple. a standing alve orgai'iization includ-' ing, in addition to thementioned parts, a connecting and seat-carrying element 22, a plumb-bobor other valve 23, a cage 24, and an engageable upward projection 25.'llhe hollow plug 21, or its equivalent, may, if desired, be provided,at or near its lower end, with. an internal thread 26, adapted toreceive a correspondingly threaded end of a so-callcd gas-anchor 27,thelower end of which may terminate, as withina bull-nose 28 retained by acoupling 29, below the lowermost inlet openings 80 in the perforated leg12, or itsequivalent.

By constructing my socket elements as separate articles adapted tocooperate with associated parts in the described manner, preferablyusing in connection therewith in terchangeable coupling elements of thede scribed character, I not only simplify standing valve retainingorganizations but provide for the easier and more accurate finish-I ingof the essential parts; and I also notably prolon the period of serviceof each socket element and facilitate the restoration or replacementthereof. The principles of my invention are favorable to easy assemblyor disassembly, affording quick access to any one of several parts bythe unscrewing of one or two threaded connections; and, although I mayform my socket elements, as well as the associated parts, from asuitable steel, the described construction is entirely favorable to theuse of a brass or a special composition in the casting of special socketelements; and I may even use Babbitt metal as a lining for socketelements of the general character described (preferably providingspecial. depressions for the reception of the babbitt, somewhatassuggested in Fig. 2)it being however necessary that the body of thesocket elements have sufficient tensile strength to adapt the same tocooperate with steel or other couplings in securing the mentioned partsin their assembled relationships. In Fig' 2, I suggest the cut ting ofannular grooves 31 in a socket element 13 and the drilling of radialdepressions 32 at suitable intervals along one or more of the mentionedgrooves,these grooves and depressions, or equivalent irregularities,being suitable to the retention of Babbitt linings 33, which may becastin place and subsequently cut or otherwise linished to provide asmooth surface having a desired taper; and the interiors of all mysocket elements are easily accessible for initial or restorative cuttingor grinding.

Although I have herein described a single complete embodiment of myinvention, suggesting alternative details, it-should be understood notonly that various features thereof may be independently used but alsothat numerous modifications might be made by those skilled in the art towhich this case relates, without the slightest departure from the spiritand scope of this invention, as the same is indicated above and in thefollowing claims.

I claim as my invention:

1. In an organization of the general character described a downwardlytapered standing valve body; a socket element provided with a pluralityof similar oppositely disposed and correspondingly tapered faces foralternative use, to provide a wedge fit and removably to retain saidtapered body.

2. In an organization of the general character described: a seat for astanding valve body, which seat has the form of a socket ele mentprovided with a plurality of oppositely disposed tapered faces formed insubstantially flat unobstructed surfaces for alternative use in awedge-fitting relationship with said body, said socket element being ofsubstantially uniform external diameter, eX- cept as it is provided withthreads adapting the same to serve as a coupling element.

3. A socket element fora standing valve body interiorly provided withoppositely disposed conical faces formed in substantially flatunobstructed surfaces tapered suit-- ably to effect a wedge lit withsaid body, said element being externally provided with a continuousthread, and both ends of said element being substantially alike, torender the same interchangeable in use.

4. In combination: a socket element as described in claim 3; andinterchangeable symmetrical coupling members,internally threaded at bothends respectively, each of said members engaging portions of said socketelement thread.

5. In combination: a socket element as described in claim 3; a standingvalve organization comprising a tapered body; a pump barrel extendingabove said body and interchangeable symmetrical coupling membersinternally threaded at both ends respectively engaging portions of saidsocket element- 'thread, one of said coupling members being engaged bysaid pump barrel.

6. In combination: a socket element as described in claim 3; a standingvalve organization comprising a tapered body; a pump barrel extendingabove said body and interchangeable symmetrical coupling membersinternally threaded at both ends respectively engaging portions of saidsocket element thread, one of said coupling members being engaged byapump barrel, and another of said coupling members being provided withmeans for the support of a perforated leg.

7. In combination: a socket element as described in claim 3; a pumpbarrel thereabove; a perforated leg therebelow and interchangeablesymmetrical coupling members internally threadedat both endsrespectively engaging portions of said socket element thread, one ofsaid coupling members being engaged by said pump barrel, another of saidcoupling members being provided with means for the support of saidperforated leg; and a standing valve organization, removably seatedwithin said socket element and comprising a gas anchor extending intosaid perforated leg. 7

8. In combination: a socket element as described in claim 3 which isprovided with oppositely tapered inner linings of a nonferrous material.

9. In an organization of the general character described; a reversiblesocket element for the reception of a standing valve body, said elementbeing provided with means for its retention between substantiallyidentical coupling elements; oppositely disposed coupling elementsabutting end to end and respectively engaged thereby and cooperating toproduce a lock-nut effect; and a standing valve organization removablysupported by said socket element.

10. In an organization'of the general charreceive said body, said seatengaging the respective parts of said shoe.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set 10 my hand at Los Angles,California this 3rd day of December, 1925.

SUMNER l3. SARGENTD

